York, JCC rank high for health outcomes

Residents in York and James City counties ranked among the top 10 for health outcomes in Virginia, according to a new report.

York ranked fourth and James City County seventh in the County Health Rankings report released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Researchers assess the level of overall health or "health outcomes" for each local community in Virginia by looking at the rate of people dying before age 75, the percent of people who report being in fair or poor health, the numbers of days people report being in poor physical and poor mental health and the rate of low-birthweight infants.

Cities and counties were also ranked for health factors, such as healthy behavior, including adult smoking, excessive drinking and obesity rates and teenage births. It also considers the number of uninsured adults, availability of primary care providers, preventable hospital stays, high school graduation rates, rates of adults who attended college, child poverty rates, access to healthy foods and air pollution levels.

Hampton and Newport News had higher rates of teen births, adult obesity, excessive drinking and sexually transmitted infections than the state average. The cities also had a lower high school graduation rate, a higher number of single-parent households, a higher violent crime rate and a higher percentage of children in poverty than the state average, according to the report.

York and James City counties had lower adult smoking, excessive drinking, teen birth and sexually transmitted infection rates than the state average.

They also had higher high school graduation rates and lower single-parent household, children in poverty and violent crime rates than the state average, according to the report.